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The Boston Modern Orchestra Project is seeking to produce the first commercial recording of David Del Tredici's rarely performed orchestral epic Child Alice. The release will be a two-disc set in hybrid-SACD format, produced on our highly acclaimed house label, BMOP/sound.

In 1976, David Del Tredici shocked the new music world with his emotional work Final Alice. Despite the risk of being ridiculed for its use of tonal melody and harmony, Final Alice transformed contemporary music and developed a following of devoted young composers who identified with the expressivity of Del Tredici's voice.

One year later, Del Tredici expanded that voice with Child Alice, a neo-Romantic saga that sets poems from Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass for amplified soprano, interspersed with orchestral movements Del Tredici calls "chapters of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland that got away." Child Alice explores the mood of unleashed creativity and artistic freedom surrounding Lewis Carroll's creation of Wonderland and is classic Del Tredici—lush writing brimming with emotion and possibility.

A massive 130 minute work for large orchestra and an amplified soprano soloist, Child Alice has been performed only twice in its entirety and has never been commercially recorded.

The Boston Modern Orchestra performed Child Alice with soprano Courtenay Budd to close our 20th season. We were able to record Child Alice as part of our concert process. However, producing a CD is expensive work and we need your help with editing, mastering and manufacturing. We cannot create this world premiere recording without your support! Any donation makes a difference—thank you!

This a great opportunity to take part in releasing an unrecorded landmark work—performed by the leading soprano interpreter of David Del Tredici's works and the orchestra named Musical America's 2016 Ensemble of the Year! Thank you for your support.

About the Featured Artists

David Del Tredicichanged the course of modern music with his return to tonality and the creation of the Neo-Romantic movement. A former Guggenheim and Woodrow Wilson fellow, he won the Pulitzer Prize for Part I of Child Alice in 1980. He often writes in response to a literary world, and has spent twenty-five years composing work exploring Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass.

Composer David Del Tredici. Photo credit: Susan Johann

Courtenay Budd is the foremost soprano performing Del Tredici's work and a regular collaborator with the composer. After a performance of Del Tredici song cycles, the New Music Connoisseur wrote "Budd...was not only beautifully expressive but impeccable in her delivery of every word and note." Ms. Budd is a Metropolitan National Opera Finalist.

Soprano Courtenay Budd. Photo Credit: Fay Fox

Gil Rose is a conductor helping to shape the future of classical music. His dynamic performances and many recordings have garnered international critical praise.
In 1996, Mr. Rose founded the Boston Modern Orchestra Project, the foremost professional orchestra dedicated exclusively to performing and recording symphonic music of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries.
He is an accomplished conductor of operatic work both nationally and abroad.

Conductor and artistic director Gil Rose. Photo credit: Kathy Wittman

TheBoston Modern Orchestra Project is recognized as the premiere orchestra in the United States dedicated exclusively to commissioning, performing, and recording new orchestral music. BMOP celebrates 20 years this season. The orchestra was named Musical America's 2016 Ensemble of the Year and its signature CD label, BMOP/sound, has received six Grammy nominations. In a recent profile of BMOP, The New York Times stated that "the orchestra has become one of the most artistically valuable in the
country for its support of music either new or so
woefully neglected that it might as well be."

The Boston Modern Orchestra Project. Photo credit: Kathy Wittman

Risks and challenges

BMOP/sound has already passed the most difficult stage of this process by securing funding for top-tier artists and the recording itself. After the recording sessions on March 23rd and 24th, all that will be left is post-production: editing and mastering the audio footage, designing and editing the accompanying materials, and the manufacture of the final product. As with any process, it is possible that this might take longer than estimated. But BMOP/sound has a proven record of both creating CDs. (We've produced 50!) Four of those CDs were partially funded by Kickstarters, so we also have experiance with getting full funding and delivering rewards. We are confident we can accomplish this project with your support!